Guest column: The evolution of Memorial Day

Memorial Day ceremony

Western High School will host a Memorial Day ceremony at 10 a.m. Friday, May 24. Guest speakers, veterans and students attend the ceremony "to honor those who sacrificed so much for our country," said Denne Tiengthong, Western High School treasurer. Western High is at 501 S. Western Ave., Anaheim.

Memorial Day is an American tradition with roots as far back as the American Civil War. What first began with Confederate wives decorating the graves of their fallen husbands has since blossomed into a national holiday in which all fallen soldiers, from every U.S. conflict, are recognized and honored.

Memorial Day, then known as Decoration Day, was officially recognized in May 1868 by Gen. John Logan. He writes of the new holiday, in his General Order No. 11, "... for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land."

Northern states were quick to recognize the national holiday, but Southern states were reluctant. Decoration Day was thus celebrated almost exclusively in the North, with Southern states honoring fallen confederates on different dates.

And so it was, until shortly after World War I, when Decoration Day underwent two important alterations. First, the scope of the holiday widened to honor all fallen soldiers from every U.S. war. And second, people began referring to the holiday as Memorial Day (the name, however, did not officially change until 1967).

These changes helped solidify Memorial Day as an important American tradition.

The holiday's final fix came with the National Holiday Act of 1971. Memorial Day became a three-day weekend holiday and would be recognized on the final Monday of May.

Memorial Day is now recognized with parades, picnics, fireworks, flags positioned at half staff and graveyard visits. It is a day in which the fallen are honored and life is celebrated. A day basked both in solemnity, and new summer vitality.

– Jason Bircea, a senior and AP student at Western High School, is involved in the National Honor Society and plans to attend UC Santa Barbara this fall

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